1. Field
This disclosure relates to storage devices such as hard disk drives and hard disks configured in arrays such as a Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID).
2. Description of the Related Art
Hard disk drives (HDDs) are ubiquitous in our society, included with or coupled to computers, configured as groups and coupled with servers, included in portable media players, and even included in automobile navigation systems. However reliable they are, hard drives and other storage devices occasionally fail. To increase the reliability, capacity, and performance of a hard disk, multiple hard disks may be used as a group. A popular configuration of a group of hard disks is known as RAID, an acronym for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks. The fundamental principle behind RAID is that it allows a collection of individual disks to behave as one larger, faster, and more reliable disk. And as solid-state flash memory storage devices become more widespread, RAID techniques are being used with storage devices other than hard disks, including, for example, solid-state drives (SSD) that conform to hard disk drive standards.